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People's Commune of Muscovy
"Arise ye pris’ners of starvation Arise ye wretched of the earth For justice thunders condemnation A better world’s in birth! No more oppression's chains shall bind us Arise, ye slaves, no more in thrall; The earth shall rise on new foundations We have been naught we shall be all." :- "Ballad of the Free Men" by Natelya Drochokenov The People's Commune of Muscovy, otherwise known as the People's Commune or Muscovy is a new faction being expanded upon for Paradox: Renaissance. Formed by a revolution of serfs and 'communalists' against Ivan IV, Grand Prince of Russia, in 1547, the People's Commune is an anomaly amongst the empires and kingdoms around it in that it primarily run by the common people who reside in it. Having eradicated the tsars and other nobility and ruled under the reformed Council of Citizenry, Muscovy now seeks to recover from war with the recently made League of Nations and build itself up as a major power in the Known World. The People's Commune of Muscovy are symbolized by a crossed hammer and sickle, with a star on the upper left. This is meant to represent the two major fields of agriculture and industry that thrive within the People's Commune, as well as power of the Citizen. At a Glance Faction Colour : Red. Gameplay Style : Armored Front. Preferred Theatre of Operations : Open Ground. Strengths : Well-armored infantry and cavalry, large numbers of auxiliary troops, good area of effect weapons. Weaknesses : Very slow units, low rates of fire, auxiliary troops lack quality, regular troops lack quantity. Intended Players : Average Apprentice in Battle Tactics. Background Seed of Equality The rise of the People's Commune of Muscovy started truly in 1523, a full twenty-five years before the fall of Ivan the Terrible and the tsardom of Muscovy, when one Viktor Heinrich Zelinsky revealed a discovery that would one day shake the then Grand Duchy of Muscovy to its core. A minor inventor studying the still-young technology of capturing and manipulating ambient electricity, Zelinsky was investigating the possibility of passing such energy from one apparatus to another through use of special wires when he inadvertently linked up another set of apparatus without realizing it - until he noticed that not only were the two sets of electricity-transferring apparati passing the energy between each other, they were also passing it along to every other apparatus connected. It was small. It was crude. It was little more than a scientific oddity. But this discovery was merely the first step. As Zelinsky investigated further, he began to make the apparati smaller, link up more of them together, test the boundaries of what could be done with such networks. Soon, it was discovered that by using more commplicated machinery, the network could actually send information back and forth between other machines. Then, Zelinsky and another researcher learned that by using an offshot of ambient electricity tentatively named 'aetheric energy', the machines could connect with each other over long distances without even needing to be physically linked via wires. And in 1535...something happened. While conducting routine communication experiments over long distance with Alexandre Blagovest, a fellow electrician and colleage of Zelinsky, the researchers noticed something odd - minor errors in the code being used for communication, that seemed to happen on their own...and as the two men conversed more, they both noticed that the machine was learning from their code...and attempting to imitate it. Within the electrical network that came to be known as kyberspace, the first intelligence borne out of artificial means came into existence. And it was such that the first Artificial Subjects were created, though they were crude and like babes in their intellect at first. The first, nicknamed Rod from the old Slavic mythological being, was only truly able to achieve self-consciousness after four years of constant tutelage by its 'fathers'. But the Orthodox Church and Ivan III took notice of Zelinksy and Blagovest's creation, and while the Church wanted them put to death for sinning while 'trying to usurp the Lord's position as Creator of All Life', the tsar recognized the potential of such a being and further beings as loyal subjects...both in peace, and in war. Soon, Zelinsky became invited into the court of the Duchy, and was set into position as the tsar's official Artificial Subject Crafter. More and more networks were created, linked to Rod in order to more quickly spread information into newly created ASs, and the network began to spread all across Moscow. Soon, the average boyar could use a caculating machine, or a caculma, to link into Kyberspace and transfer or even directly upload information. An informational revolution began to start...and soon, a physical revolution. Growth of Democracy Initially, the only people who had access to the Kyberspace network were the boyars, knyazes, tsars, and the court researchers - and, as the Artifical Subjects grew and gained more knowledge, they learned all they could from them. The first ASs learned of history, philosophy, politics, and warfare - and they remained solely in Kyberspace frames and caculmas, the People's Commune might have never come about. But eventually, Ivan III wanted more from the Artificial Subjects. He wanted not just subjects, but soldiers to help him conquer his enemies. And so Zelinsky was called upon to oversee the construction of bodies for the Artificial Subjects, calling upon craftsmen and anatomists and other inventors to help him put life into bulky, vaguely humanoid constructs - Kyberspace frames, wired up to allow sight, sound, and touch reach the AS 'mind' within, given shape and anatomy by diligent workers and created in the form of their maker, using ambient-energy collecting spinners to help provide energy. Once the Artificial Subjects were given bodies, however, they became more exposed to the world - and, with their limited understanding of the feudal order, were confused by what they could now see and hear for themselves. They viewed the royal lords and ladies of Muscovy ruling over the common people, and the peasants and serfs of said royals toiling in the fields and farms in stark poverty. They witnessed the burgeoning trader classes 'preying' upon others, taking advantage of the luxury of the royals and the ignorance of the peasants to stuff their own pockets. They watched the corruption of the Orthodox Church, nobles, and military officials sap at both the coffers and the defense of the nation. To beings whose existence had been sheltered immensely, who knew of people only as equals in coding, this was a worldview unlike any they had known before...and with the tutoring recieved by the various bored nobles and other users of Kyberspace, something clicked within them - this was not right. The Artifical Subjects would never publicly reveal to their creators or to the tsars their thoughts on such matters, but from the day they were first exposed to the feudal system of the Grand Duchy they made plans to change it, their thoughts modified by the militaristic advice and teachings exposed to them by the nobles of Moscow. From them sprang forth the idea of Communalism - of an equality of being, where every being had certain rights and equality that could only be modified by the personal talents of the being or the decisions of their peers as a whole. Using the Kyberspace and a few susceptible confederates amongst the royalty of the Grand Duchy, the ASs began to gather allies and spread their ideas to the countryside as a whole. In 1547, the ideas and words of the Artificial Subjects had spread amongst the greater population like a plague for over eight years, and already general discontent and rebellious murmerings were coming to a head. The corruption of the ruling class was becoming more and more evident, and behind the scenes the Artificial Subjects watched, and listened, and put more information into feeding the fire. And as Prince Ivan IV, otherwise known as Ivan the Terrible, accepted the title of Tsar of all Muscovy, the lower classes revolted. Fruits of Communalism For the next twelve years, the Grand Duchy was at war. The boyars, knayzes, and tsars had let their reign run lax in earlier times, but the discontent of the serfs and peasants tightened their grip on the lower classes, and the rise of Ivan the Terrible to Tsar of all Muscovy encouraged them to be more harsh in their punishments and demanding in their fines and taxes. As Ivan vowed to crack down on the mutterings of anger and rebellion, the lower class began to consolidate and band together in local militias to fight off the taxmen and guards of their masters. Farm implements were taken up as weapons, hunting bows were turned upon humans instead of game, and some sympathetic traders and merchants even risked their lives to bring caches of weapons into Muscovy. But Tsar Ivan IV and the knayzes had the power of wealth, bodies, and modern equipment of their own, and despite the popular uprising the communalist rebellion was sorely outmatched. But what they lacked in numbers or tools, the revolutionaries made up for with information. The Artifical Subjects used their positions in court and among the nobility to spy on the war plans of the tsars and boyars, using confederates and those few nobles swayed by their arguments to help organize and assemble the rebellious populace. Coordinates for treasure houses were relayed to bandits and thieves, who broke in and stole the wealth of the upper class to use for buying weaponry from the peaceful League of Nations. With one side boosted by equipment and power, and the other lifted by numbers, information, and spirit, the Muscovite Civil War raged on, the tide of battle and shift of power flowing from one year to the next. The Communalists would be strong and nearly in victory one month, and then crushed by defeat at a key city the next month. Finally, in 1559, the revolution ended. After a decade of fighting, the Communalists had managed to secure victory for themselves and take the city of Moscow, and with the execution of Tsar Ivan the Terrible the remaining nobility surrendered. They were confined to their palaces, now turned into prisons, and the people of the newly-named People's Commune of Muscovy began to rebuild. The Artificial Subjects who had helped win the war now stood in a unique position, having the knowledge of the previous ruling class and political system but lacking the practical knoweldge held by the previous peasant population of Muscovy, they became advisors to a new system of government: communalism. Where once were peasants and serfs were now citizens, allowed and encouraged to vote for representatives of their choice to represent their townships in the Council of Citizenry. Even the Artificial Subjects were renamed Artifical Citizens, and they too were allowed to take part in the national and democratic proceedings. There would be problems ahead. Western Europe had not been blind to the fall of the tsars and the rise of the lower classes, and in time the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and People's Commune would find themselves fighting in another war, this time against one another. Corruption and partisanship would make its presence felt as the new nation struggled to find its feet in world politics. But no matter what happened next, the citizen of the People's Commune would be confident in their actions. They had fought to secure equality for themselves once, and they would fight to the death to keep it for their children. Development The People's Commune of Muscovy is the second faction being put out for Paradox: Renaissance, having a release date of 20XX. The faction will have a total of 10 buildings, 5 defensive structures and 32 units (11 Infantry, 7 Cavalry, 5 Ships, 5 Automated Citizens, and 4 Aerial Ships). Structures Defences Infantry Cavalry Ships Automated Citizens Aerial Ships